An annual festival held in Hot Springs could look for a new venue because the town currently lacks an ordinance allowing the use of golf carts on city streets. Representatives of the Hot Springs Resort & Spa asked officials to consider new rules around the vehicles at the Board of Aldermen’s Feb. 5 meeting.

Since 2013, the Wild Goose Festival has set up camp at the resort along the French Broad River. The four-day event rooted in the progressive Christian movement attracts about 3,500 people each year, according to Ron West, the spa’s manager. “It’s one of our biggest,” West told aldermen. “The Hot Springs Resort & Spa does these events so we can keep 35-40 people employed year-round and not lay people off.”

Jeff Clark, the president and producer of the Wild Goose Festival, said in a phone interview two days after the Hot Springs meeting that allowing golf carts on Hot Springs streets would help accommodate older attendees and those with disabilities. “Folks stay in cabins and rooms in and around town and need to be able to get back and forth easily. This would be a means of accommodating our special needs population.”

Scenes from Wild Goose Festival 2016. Wild Goose is a four-day festival held in Hot Springs that focuses on art, music, spirituality and social justice.(Photo: Courtesy of Scott Griessel)

Passed in 2009, North Carolina General Statute 160A-300.6 allows cities to regulate by ordinance the operation of golf carts on public streets with speed limits below 35 miles per hour. Towns like Morganton in Burke County have passed local rules allowing golf carts on city streets. Currently, Hot Springs does not have such guidelines in place. Clark said that situation has forced the festival to “pull back on programming in town. We stopped having music around meal times at places like Spring Creek (Tavern) because some people couldn’t get over there easily. We can’t really support things across the tracks, so to speak, because we can’t get there.”

“I’m the person on the board who advocates staying in Hot Springs,” he said. “I enjoy town. I enjoy the merchants and working with local businesses. I’m hanging on to make it as good as possible. Now it’s getting tough to make that argument.”

Scenes from Wild Goose Festival 2016. Wild Goose is a four-day festival held in Hot Springs that focuses on art, music, spirituality and social justice.(Photo: Courtesy of Scott Griessel)

In his presentation to aldermen, West said golf carts could be permitted with all fees benefiting the town budget. “It could be a good source of revenue,” he said. West also added that the use of golf carts would be a “greener approach than driving our trucks around town.”

Hot Springs Mayor Sidney Harrison said that golf carts would need to be equipped with lights and “be set up according to the laws of North Carolina.”

“There’s a reason for this request,” he said. “Some people have trepidation walking through town alone and some may need transportation to restaurants because some people, quite honestly, aren’t able to walk from the campground to the other end of town.”

“We want to be following exactly what we need to be doing,” said Alderman Jeanne Caldwell Gentry, adding that time to research the rules would be necessary.

Scenes from Wild Goose Festival 2016. Wild Goose is a four-day festival held in Hot Springs that focuses on art, music, spirituality and social justice.(Photo: Courtesy of Scott Griessel)

Ultimately, aldermen all voted in favor of a motion introduced by Alderman Jimmy Moore to table the issue. Moore said a potential ordinance allowing golf carts in Hot Springs would be discussed in a public meeting on or before March 5, when the town council is next scheduled to meet.

“We certainly hope a resolution will pass and they allow golf carts registered with the town to be used,” West said Feb. 7. “Nor only would this help Wild Goose, it would help the resort and the town’s people.”

News and notes

The three-person board voted in favor of developing a sewer and grease trap policy in the hopes that new rules governing restaurants would limit expenses associated with cleaning sewer lines. Caldwell Gentry said that the planned purchase of a jetter that used to clear lines would have to wait until the next fiscal year. “That is how tight our water budget is,” she said… Hot Springs residents with delinquent taxes under $1,200 could face a trip to small claims court. Aldermen voted unanimously to file claims against property owners with outstanding balances between $300-$1,200. “They’re not small amounts,” Caldwell Gentry said. “They add up because there are so many of them.”… Hot Springs Police Chief David Shelton said the installation of a new security camera system would be completed in the days following the Feb. 5 meeting. In October, aldermen approved the roughly $11,000 purchase of a network of cameras inside the Hot Springs Police Department, near the intersection of U.S 25-70 and N.C. 209 and atop both town hall and the Bill Whitten Community Center.